A Poor Craftsman Always Blames His Tools

I came across this article this morning from one of my favourite financial blogs, "Get Rich Slowly." It talks about how to evaluate potential purchases and encourages us to think about our needs versus our wants. The author is building a new home, which will require a new kitchen. Or will it?

Having come across an article by food writer Mark Bittman entitled, "So Your Kitchen Is Tiny. So What?" it led her to question her reasons for wanting fancy new kitchen appliances. Do the appliances make the cook or is the art of cooking just that; an ability no matter how good your tools are?

Bittman, who writes The Minimalist column in The New York Times, describes in this article how he makes do with only 42 square feet of kitchen space. He writes:

[Chefs and food writers] know that when it comes to kitchens, size and equipment don’t count nearly as much as devotion, passion, common sense and, of course, experience.
To pretend otherwise — to spend tens of thousands of dollars or more on a kitchen before learning how to cook, as is sadly common — is to fall into the same kind of silly consumerism that leads people to believe that an expensive gym membership will get them into shape or the right bed will improve their sex life. As runners run and writers write, cooks cook, under pretty much any circumstance.

This got me thinking about knitting (just to make a change.) Are we really only as good as the quality of the tools we use or is the fact that we can knit really the most important thing?

Last week I attended the first ever meeting of our local Knitter's Guild. It was a wonderful evening and one of the funniest parts was the game, "Can You Knit With This?" Knitters were asked to delve into a brown paper carrier bag and pluck out two regular household items to knit with. What a riot! In the space of 3 minutes our valiant volunteers created fabric using everything from a wooden spoon to a whisk!

Frankly, I think this proves that true skill will prevail no matter what the circumstances. A real artist can create in any situation and it is the act of doing that is fundamental to developing that skill.

Now, I'm not advocating that you grab the turkey baster from the kitchen and set to with gusto, but don't let the quality of your tools and yarn stop you from creating wonderful objects. After all "sticks and string" really are all you need to create beautiful works of knitted art.

PS: I'm on the last sleeve!

Seeing Red

It seems that I've fallen into a summer schedule whether I intended to or not. Please check back regularly for updates which I will post 'as and when' (but at least once a week.) Although summer should be a time of R&R (don't worry, I have penciled in some time for that), mine has turned into an onslaught of Driving and DIY.

Well, my wonderful weekend of knitting really was a weekend of knitting but wasn't so wonderful. I enjoyed a couple of hours on Saturday starting off my Swallowtail Shawl. DD2 on the other hand, spent her time ripping back her first attempt. With increasing frustration, she has declared her Knit Picks Shadow a 'no-go' yarn and thrown the whole project into the corner of her room in disgust.

She'd been doing fine, but then realised that she had too many stitches and when she tried to frog back, the rather delicate, fuzzy yarn got so knotted up that it broke....several times. Patience was not in her vocabulary and, eyeing my small piece of work, she warned me that the going might get tough.

It did.

On Sunday, I went back to my two inches of work only to discover that I too had created way too many stitches on my second lot of 6 rows in the Budding Lace Pattern. Determined to be more patient than my offspring, I frogged back to row 6 and attempted to start again. Two rows in and I again had too many stitches.

I went to Ravelry.

Reading the comments listed for the Swallowtail Shawl written by fellow Ravellers, I found Kim at "Musings Of The Fuzzy Kind". Having sat there doing the math trying to work out how many stitches I should have after each pattern row, I discovered that Kim has already done the job. She has made a PDF called "The Swallowtail Mileage Sheet" which lists the number of stitches for each row for the entire 14 repeats of the Budding Lace Pattern. Invaluable!

Despite trying to frog delicately back, I eventually decided that I'd actually done so little that I might as well just rip out the whole thing and start again. So I did. Late last night I reached the second repeat of the Budding Lace Pattern.....and made the same mistakes over again. In complete and utter frustration, I turned to the chart to see if that would shed more light on the issue than the written instructions. And do you know what? It did!

Just before I went to bed, the penny dropped. From studying the chart, I realised that I'd been repeating the entire section between the stars instead of just the 6-stitch repeat! That was how I was ending up with too many stitches.

Duh! Dunderhead!!

There is now a chance that I will get beyond the first repeat of this lace shawl and who knows, maybe once I do, I'll persuade DD2 to take the journey with me again.

Happy 4th of July!

Pattern: Swallowtail Lace Shawl - Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow - Hot Rod


Time for sticks and string.....at last!

SAT's, Stress & The Swatch

So, it's time for true confessions. Yes, you were right, I do have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to yarn. Yes, I admit, I struggle to stay within the realms of normality when a newly blocked swatch is staring at me. Ok, I know, I shouldn't have, but it really was sooooo exciting to see how the swatch looked once it was washed and the feel of the finished piece of fabric was so intoxicating that I just had to......................cast on!

After all, I did have the pattern right there in front of me and even if I couldn't get the scanner to work so that I had a working copy to carry around with me, it wasn't too much of a hardship to cart the entire magazine around instead. Yes, I succumbed. I took a few days off from the bathroom curtain and cast on for the Lacy Ribbed Top that I swatched for last week. I know, I'm weak.

Actually, in my defense I'm citing stress.

Saturday DD1 sat the infamous SAT's - yes, those college entrance exams that we have been hearing about ever since we arrived in the US when she was halfway through 7th grade. Having had the test date hanging over our heads since last September, the dreaded day finally arrived.

For the past year I have been inundated with cold calls from companies trying to blackmail me into buying their SAT Prep products. For a mere $300 I could ensure that my love for my daughter would be adequately exhibited by making sure that she had all the 'essential' prep tools she needed.

I bought her two books from Amazon that are the size of our front steps!

My role on the day was to make sure that she arrived at the test centre on time. Thank heaven for Google Maps. I ran a search the night before and using the satellite version, planned and drove my route virtually as if I was preparing for a military operation. It paid off. We cruised into the car park of a High School that we'd never been to before early enough to allow peace and calm to prevail. It was a miracle.

I'd made a conscious effort all the way to remain calm and zen-like in order to counteract the increasingly distressed vibe eminating from my offspring. By the time I got home though, I needed coffee! It's hard work meditating for two not to mention trying to keep your eyes open at 7am on a Saturday morning.

I thought about her all the time. Nothing I did could distract me from it, so I gave up and started knitting. When it was time to head back to the test centre I put my sleeve stitches on holders, drove there, then picked up my top again and set to work. I listened to one of my favourite podcasts, "This American Life" and waited.............and waited. Suddenly teenagers streamed out of the High School along with a huge air of relief (and tiredness.) It was over.

I replaced my point protectors, marked my round and we drove home.

I looked at my daughter that day and saw that a great weight had lifted from her. It seems such a short while ago that we'd never even heard of the SAT's (in fact it's taken us several years to work out exactly what they are.) When she was 12, she was using Norwegian as her first language every day; speaking, reading and writing it at school. Now, just over four years later, she has taken critical reading and writing in English on the SAT's.

I'm immensely proud of her.

I've also forgiven myself for casting on yet another project. I think this will turn out to be a special one because it marks a major milestone in my daughter's life. I hope I'll think of her whenever I wear it. There's just one possible problem.

I may run out of yarn.

Dreaming The Impossible Dream

Do you ever cast on for something, in that wonderful dream-like daze where everything seems attainable, only to get that slow creeeping feeling after the first few rows that it's impossible? That's how I feel about the bathroom curtain. Don't get me wrong, it's coming along quite nicely, but it's just taking soooooo looooong!

Every row seems to go on forever. To add insult to injury, just as I seem to be making some progress, the whole thing curls itself up so that even I can't see it's beauty. Add to that the fact that I could probably have cast on half the number of stitches that I did, and you have a recipe for potential failure.

The problem is that I'm not a quitter. When P.A. spotted the enormous ball of Aunt Lydia's last week and remarked upon the size of the gargantuan skein of thread, I was forced to reveal my plans for the bathroom curtain to him. "That'll take a long time," he stated in an extremely dry tone. My heart sank. Even he didn't think my attention span would last long enough to complete it. Mind you, who could blame him. When you have to clamber over at least two different project bags, a couple of skeins of wool and several magazines on a regular basis just to get to your spot on the sofa, then you tend to have a heads up about the gnat-sized attentive abilities of your spouse! The fact that he thinks that this curtain will never actually see the light of day (literally) is like throwing down a gauntlet though. Now I HAVE to complete it!

To add to the fun, every time I go into the downstairs cloakroom I mentally try to measure how far up the window I think my work has come. This in itself is quite disheartening as I think I'm only about two inches above the windowsill so far, just in line with the top of the turquoise candle that I got as a freebie from the makers of Bombay Sapphire Gin! I have considered turning the whole project on its side, after all the pattern is symmetrical and that way I'd have half as much to knit. The trouble with that though is that the whole thing would be too long (sigh).

So I sit like a little old lady knitting away on my curtain not really caring how many yarn overs (YO) I put in or where exactly they go, because by the time I've finished it, the whole thing will be all gathered up on the rod and no one will really notice. This aspect could have been the most defeating of all, but actually it's really quite liberating. I can knit away quite merrily and not worry if I have a few stitches too many or too few at the end of the round.

Memories of what I am doing while I'm making the curtain are also getting knitted into it ofcourse. Last Saturday I knitted several rows of Daniel Craig into the white frilly piece. We spent the evening watching "Quantum of Solice" and now I swear I can see some double "O" 7's in the curtain. Somehow though, I don't expect this memory to last. When I walk into my bathroom and see a frilly white lace curtain hanging at the window, I'm hardly going to think, "Ah, James Bond" now am I.

Or am I? I think not. Male machismo and white lace do not generally go together..........unless ofcourse we're talking Colin Firth in "Pride And Prejudice"................ Oh, dear I can see where this is leading. Think it's time to get back to the job in hand and knit a few more rows. With any luck I won't see or hear from anyone while I do that so the curtain will be safe............... at least for a while.

The Stash Is Under Attack

No, it's not an infestation of the dreaded moths or any other creepy crawly insect with a taste for yarn. No, it seems that my stash is under siege from The Family!

It started on Saturday when DD2 (SusieLusie) caught sight of that Harmony sitting in a ziploc bag on my rocker. If I'd been sensible, I'd have stuffed it into the depths of my hoard as soon as it had had its rock star moment in front of the camera, but no, I was still dreamily contemplating its future as a top notch lace product, so there it still was, on show for all to see.

It was love at first sight.

She took it out of the ziploc, fondled it and admired its colour and yardage, well, like a fully fledged yarnie really. How quickly these things catch on. It was only last summer that she was asking me, "Mum, how do I purl?" and now here she is caressing Jojoland as if she was, well, 'born to it!'

I guess this is what happens when a yarnaholic begets another yarnaholic. You think it's oh, so wonderful to have someone in your immediately family who truly understands your fiber fascination, who totally gets it. Oh the joy of a shared mother/daughter bond as you take a trip to the local LYS to check out their latest aquisitions; the pleasure of having someone else who also 'feels the love' as they fondle Filatura. If only it were that simple. No there are those dark moments that creep into all relationships when someone else covets your stash and, fearing for its survival, you have to find a new hiding place for it.

She spent the day trying to bribe me with Kid Mohair. She knew I'd liked the two skeins she'd scored at the spinner's sale last month and was keen to use that leverage. So far I've held out, but I'm not sure how much longer I'll last. The deep lilacs of that lace weight have been winking at me from across the room and begging to be swapped. I'd close my eyes, but my fingers are the problem!

I took her to our LYS in the hope she'd find something else and my Harmony would be saved. We snuck out of the house leaving a hastily scribbled note on P.A.'s workbench. It read, "Gone to the yarn store" and in brackets "(sorry)." Staring temptation in the face by deliberately walking into Aladdin's cave was likely to result in Oscar Mayer Weiners for dinner instead of barbequed chicken. I felt a touch of remorse.

DD2 was flush with cash from a recent babysitting gig and keen to increase her stash of lace yarn. I tried to find a balance between knitterly interest and self-preservation as we perused the Kid Seta and rifled through the Rowan. After a while I sort sanctuary at the large wooden work table in the middle of the shop where the owner was working on a summer top.

Big mistake. She's good at her job. The top was lace and as she passed me a skein of the yarn she was using, I found myself touching an 80% silk, 20% cotton combo. It was to die for! It took all of my rapidly fading will power to resist the urge to pop a few skeins up to the cash register to enhance my stash a little more. Thankfully the prospect of Oscar Mayer Weiners in my immediate future was enough to frighten me into sobriety. I sat on my hands.

Feeling immensely proud of myself for actually walking into a yarn store and leaving empty handed, we headed back home for a spot of lemonade and a discussion about DD2's purchases. The shared interest thing was a true pleasure once again. As she left to store her new yarn somewhere where I wouldn't find it, P.A. came out with a suggestion that left me reeling in shock:

Could some of the yarn budget be used to buy wine!

"Yarn budget? What yarn budget?" I countered.

"Well, I just thought....." he started, realising that he was perhaps on shaky ground.

"I just walked into a yarn store and didn't buy a thing!" I replied, utterly incredulous that this man could not understand how much fortitude it had taken to do that. Did he really not undertsand just how close he'd come to grilling Oscar Mayer Weiners on Memorial weekend?

"I don't believe you," he said, with a slight smile playing at the corners of his mouth. Shitake mushrooms! He was enjoying this.

"Honestly," I replied, trying to convince him that he should actually be very proud of me. "I didn't buy a thing!"

"Well, I just thought....a few bottles on the rack......."

A few bottles on the rack, I thought. That leads to cases and that leads to cruising wineries. I know how these things are. Wine, yarn, wine, yarn - I was weighing it up in my head. The idea of a cold Chablis on a warm sunny day was pretty compelling, but so was a skein of prized quiviut or a ball or two of alpaca. What do you get at the end of it too; an empty bottle and a hangover or an heirloom lace shawl? In my mind there was no contest. It would be nice to have both, but I didn't hold out much hope for the heirloom lace shawl if I'd already consumed the bottle of Chablis. Frankly this was a no-brainer.

"Sorry, mate," I replied.

Shaking my head and smiling sweetly, I handed him a bottle of beer.

The Yarn Magnet

My name's Jane and I'm a yarnaholic.

It's been,...oh.....nearly 24hrs since my last acquisition.....but it's ok people, IT WAS ANOTHER GIFT!

Yes, I went to my knitting group yesterday and my friend and fellow knitter, Tinki, gifted me this gorgeous Jojoland Harmony that she'd won on the LYS Tour. Knowing my present predelection for all-things-lace, she sweetly passed the skein in my direction. Oh, the feverish excitement. My heart started racing at the prospect of yet another lace project and images of fine wool scarves flashed through my mind. It took me a good ten minutes and a strong latte to calm down. In fact I swear that my ADD tendencies are leading me into a state of perpetual WIP's.

I found myself sitting next to Kristin of AllSpunUp yesterday and we had that exact conversation. I was truly impressed with her fortitude when it comes to not going over the '3 projects on the needles at once' thing. I always seem to have so many WIP's that I end up overwhelmed with choice and project bags (I had to climb over 3 last night just to get to my knitting chair!) Still, I need a lot of variety in life I guess. As much as I long for a simpler existence, the moment I get it I'm bored. It's the same with knitting.

Acquiring yarn is often the catalyst for a new project. I get so excited by the prospect of working with my new yarn that I just have to plan a project. If I can manage to thrust the new skeins into the bulk of the stash as soon as I get them, then I'm in with a fighting chance of survival, but if not, I'm doomed to trawling Ravelry for a suitable pattern or sketching something out myself.

It's hard being an addict.(sigh)

Take that blue Wilma that I was given last weekend. I've already decided that I'm going to make a February Lady Sweater with it. I've wanted to make one for a while and suddenly I've found myself in posession of just the yarn to make it with. The temptation to CO is immense.

Instead, I sat calmly next to Kristin yesterday, trying to suppress my obvious yarn magnetism, and watched as she knitted up one of her beautiful skeins of handdyed yarn into a pair of socks. She passed a finished one towards me to fondle. It was dreamily soft and painted in earthy hues of greens and golds. The magnetic field must have kicked in though, because a moment later she gave me a knowing look and put it safely back into her bag (either that or it was the drool seeping from the corner of my mouth!) My chance to slip the sock on to my foot and conveniently forget about it had passed me by.

Instead I came home, blocked the Misti Lace Scarf (much to the rest of the family's fascination who were all very intrigued by the wires and T-pins) and set about pondering the Harmony.

Hmmm. Now, I wonder what you're meant to be?

It's Curtains For Me!

Yesterday I finished the Mist Lace Scarf. I feel sad and excited at the same time - sad that it's over because I really got into the pattern; excited because now I get to use the new KnitPicks blocking mat and lace wires that I got for my birthday.

Ofcourse I cast on for something else immediately. The thought of being without a lace project was just too much for me right now, so I sorted through the stash and came across this enormous ball of crocheters cotton which I bought last summer. I had planned to make a net curtain for my downstairs bathroom - you know, one of those floaty, lacy things that hangs there looking prettier than a frosted glass window pane. In the absense of frosted glass windows in rooms that contain toilets here in our corner of the US (maybe it's just a British thing?), a net curtain is something of a necessity when your bathroom is on the ground floor and your neighbourhood is full of little boys! (Need I say more.)

So, I have cast on for KnitPicks Lace Curtain. The cotton is very fine and a bit slippery on my Addi Turbo needles, but as long as I can manage to make some version of light lace fabric without stressing out my arms and hands in the process, then all will be well. After three rows though, I am already missing using a chart. I've discovered that although having the written pattern to follow is just fine, I really rather like the simplicity of a chart. Now, I know that not all lace charts are simple. Some of those huge projects, like the shawl that Rudee is making at the moment, require planning of military proportions to execute, but compared with the written version, they are a whole lot easier to follow once you get going.

My window is a lot smaller than the one in the pattern, but I'm hoping that the finer cotton will produce a narrower result and it'll fit beautifully. Now all I have to do is maintain the patience to see this project through to the end and that, as they say over here, "is a whole different ball game!"

LYS Tour 2009

This weekend it was the annual LYS tour here in the Puget Sound area. It's like a pub crawl only with a lot of yarn involved instead of alcohol - equally as intoxicating though! The yarn crawl involves whizzing from one LYS to another during four days of pure indulgence. Along the way there are discounts, gifts and stamps to collect in your official passport which, if completed, enters you into a draw for yet more yarnaholic delights.

You'll be pleased to know that, under the present circumstances, I resisted the temptation to take part in the full blown fiber frolic and instead contented myself with one yarn store visit.

Yesterday was Norwegian National Day, so as usual we had planned a family outing to the annual parade in Seattle. Now, last year I happened to discover that the very car park we use to park in when we're down there, just happens to be right next to a yarn shop! What a happy coincidence. Having ducked my head inside quickly last year, I vowed that this time we would leave early enough to make a prolonged visit 'a plan.'

We did.

The Darling Daughter's and I spent a good 45 minutes 'petting' everything from Cascade Pima Tencel to Kid Seta. Meanwhile harried knitters flew in and out getting their passports stamped, snapping up the free knitting patterns and pausing just long enough to 'pet the peruvian!'

I blame the heat - it must have been over 75F outside and we have had a particularly hard winter.

With time marching on and some anniversary cash in my pocket from P.A, I finally settled on 2 skeins of Misti Alpaca in a candy pink shade. I'd drooled over some gorgeous Cascade 220 in a beautiful royal blue and stroked some Manos Del Uruguay in a deep red, but the pull of that lace phase I'm going through was just too strong.

As we emerged into the full heat of the day and made our way down towards the parade route, we were also excited by the prospect of meeting up with some old friends from our time in Norway. As special guests in this years parade and with a packed schedule, we would only have a few moments with them though.

Meeting up was easy, parting was hard. Imagine my joy though when they both presented me with bags full of Norwegian yarn that they'd de-stashed especially for me! There was Lanett, Silja and Wilma by Sandnesgarn and Falk from Dalegarn. I was so excited that it was all I could do not to pull some needles out of my handbag and get started straight away.

At the end of the day, we wended our way back to the car weighed down with folding chairs and bags of wool. Thanks to the kindness of old friends, our weekend LYS Tour could truly by entitled "Destination Yarn!"

Lace Yarn & Musk Ox

I'm obsessed! One small piece of knitted lace and I'm completely and utterly hooked. Honestly, I must be easily led. Last night, while everyone else was watching tv, babysitting or hanging out in their workshop, I was surfing Ravelry and drooling over lace. I think I just doubled my favourites in one go!

Then ofcourse that leads on to drooling over lace yarn. I've looked at everything from fine cobweb to handspun with beads. It's a whole subcategory of yarnology. ("yarnology", is that a word? Well, it is now.)

If you're a knitter, you've got to know your yarnology. It's an extensive field and with the advent of the internet, an ever increasing one too. Yarn knowledge seems to be hugely complicated and the more I read about different yarns, the more I just can't wait to try them out. Honestly, a little bit of knowledge takes yarn petting to a whole new dimension.

I've discovered that the Alaskan yarn Quiviut (Pronounced: KIV-EE-UT) is the most coveted fiber out there. It comes from wild musk ox which reside up in the arctic circle. Musk ox are relics of the ice age some 20,000 years ago. They lived at a time when saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths roamed the treeless high Arctic. As you can imagine, they have very thick fur that keeps them warm during the arctic winter. Their outside hair is called guard hair, the very long hair on the back, but leading up to winter they start growing underwool which is called quiviut. It is very light and soft and is perhaps one of the finest fibers there is. Consequently, the price of quiviut is more than $40 per ounce, yet demand by us knitters far outstrips supply.

This will be one fiber to watch as the world faces the challenges of climate change though. As the arctic gets warmer and the ice melts, what will happen to the musk ox? Will it die out or will it adapt to the new climate and if so, will this mean no more quiviut?

Something to think about, isn't it.

When The Going Gets Tough........

...................the tough cast on lace. I know, only a mad woman would consider casting on for a lace project when all around her seems to be falling apart, but........what can I say? When I need comfort, I run to my knitting and hiding in a project which challenges me with YO's, SSK's and K2tog's has been just the therapy I need. I was even brave enough to take it to my knitting group yesterday. Obviously, I wasn't full of conversation, after all I had a lace chart on my lap, but listening to everyone else's jolly banter perked me up no end.

I've been wanting to tackle some lace for a while and so I have CO with some KnitPicks Palette from my stash. The colour is totally 'me' ofcourse and it seems to be knitting up a treat. I'm enjoying hiding in my 'Mist' Lace Scarf project and avoiding the knot in my stomach created by the fact that my husband is about to lose the job that we moved halfway round the world to take up just over 4yrs ago.

Perhaps lace is the perfect project for a situation like this. Maybe gauge is not such an issue as it is with stockinette or garter stitch? Controlling the tension of your needles as you run the full gamut of emotions that possible unemployment throws at you (with loss of medical insurance and everything that that entails) is perhaps easier with lacework? Who knows? All I know is, it's working for me! Every time I feel that lump leaping up to grab my throat, or that anger threatening to harden my heart, I reach for my lace scarf and knit.

Right now, I'm very glad I'm a knitter.

Pattern #5

I'm working on a hat pattern at the moment. I started it over Christmas when I was 'confined to barracks' because of all the snow that we had. It was the ideal opportunity to pick up my needles and some yarn from the stash and just knit.

When I finished the piece though, I was so shocked by how good it looked that I decided I needed to be able to produce it again. This is proving more difficult than I thought it would. The combination of the stitch pattern, the sizing and those decreases for the crown, have led me now to prototype #3.

This could be the moment where boredom gets the better of me and I pick up my "Monkey" socks instead! The thing is, the hat looks so bloomin' good when it's finished. I'm determined to master the pattern writing issues simply because the hat deserves to see the light of day.

My first sample was made in Heirloom Merino Magic, a lovely 100% Australian wool. For the second though I switched to RY Cashsoft, a blend of 57% extra fine merino, 33% microfibre and 10% cashmere. It felt a little strange to knit with at first, but now that I've got used to it, it's great. The stitch definition is amazing and perfect for this particular hat.

So I'm on to sample #3 and at this rate I'll have made a major contribution to my Christmas gift knitting! Guess what they'll all be getting?!

Animal Antics

Well, I'm at the frog pond with my "Monkeys" already! I know, I've barely started, but being the dunderhead that I am I got so caught up in knitting the lace pattern that I forgot that I should be doing the sole in stockinette. Yes, I have 5 rounds of lace on both the top and bottom of the foot. That'll teach me to knit late at night when I'm tired!

So, 'Rip-it', 'Rip-it' was a regular mumble last night as I moaned, grumbled and frogged back to the start of my lace pattern. It sure isn't 'easy being green', as the most famous frog of all time would say.

Green was definitely a colour that was on my radar yesterday. While running errands in the next town, I just happened to be close enough to the yarn store where I bought my Noro Kureyon back in the fog bound days of last Autumn (it became "Sea Urchin.") Naturally, I popped in, signed up as a preferred customer and came away with this gorgeous local sock yarn to gift to a friend.

I think I'll direct her to Cookie A's "Monkey" pattern too and see what animal antics she comes up with!

Broadripple & Monkey

Now that I've found a sock knitting method that I feel comfortable with, I am finding myself addicted to creating footwear. This addiction is closely followed by a naturally developing love of sock yarns, which explains my recent yarnie purchases (and gifts.)

The Toe-Up Broadripple socks are a wonderful addition to my sock drawer and have inspired me to keep on knitting Two-At-A-Time and Toe-Up. I really loved being able to try on the socks as I was making them and I'm totally enamoured of the Two-At-A-Time Magic Loop method. It looks a bit complicated - two balls of yarn getting tangled up with one enormous circular needle - but once you get past the two toes, you're off and running (excuse the pun!)

Following the Broadripple success, I have now CO for a pair of Toe-Up Monkey by Cookie A. I received this gorgeous Drops Fabel sock yarn by Garnstudio from my Norwegian swap partner, Kate, when I took part in a swap last summer. I love the way that it is knitting up. I have CO 10sts and increased to 56sts, because I have rather narrow feet. To enable the pattern to fit this stitch count, I've reduced the lace pattern from 16sts to 14sts by taking out 1 purl stitch before and after the first and last yo in the pattern.

So far, so good!

If You Want To Keep Your Cash..............

.............................don't go to the bi-annual sale at the local spinner's guild!
That's where I went last night. It was touch and go whether I'd make it at all, but half an hour after it started, I succumbed to the temptation and headed out the door. It was only 5 blocks away, so it seemed just so, well, easy really, to 'nip' up the road and see what was happening.

What can I say? The place was an Aladdin's cave. There were spinner's everywhere, vibrant coloured fleece by the sack load, gorgeous shawl pins and several people selling off items from their stash. The thing about spinning is that once you've started creating your own yarn, I'm reliably informed that there's nothing quite like knitting with your own handspun. Sounds a bit dangerous to me. I could easily get sucked in.

Mind you, some of the stash being sold at half price was pretty nice stuff. Look what I got!!

I think I'll be making socks for quite a while.

Needled

On Saturday I'm taking part in a workshop with Tuulia Salmela. She will be teaching us her Tailored Sweater method. I am so looking forward to it as this will be my first formal lesson here in the US, in fact, it'll be my first formal lesson full stop. Aside from the generous instruction I received from my grandmother at age 8, I am entirely self-taught, so this will be a new adventure for me.

In preparation for the event, I started to look out the required materials yesterday. I could manage the tape measure, scissors and stitch markers, but the stitch holder request means I have to get my baby jacket, Mae, off the needles this week and, ah, needles........... Yup needles were an issue. US 7 is not something I commonly have laying around in my very cosmopolitan needle collection. You see, I own needles from several different countries which I can tell you, does not simplify life at all! My needle gauge is my best friend and without it I'd be totally stumped. I'm always trying to translate US or UK sizes into metric, then I get confused and finally end up forgetting whether I'm looking for US6 (4mm) or US4 (3.5mm). Sometimes it can really be a problem.

I wouldn't mind if this just happened with knitting needles, but as it extends to every area of my life, it's no wonder I'm disorganised. My home filing system has to manage both American letter-sized documents and European A4 sized ones, so my hanging files have to be legal sized to fit everything in. If I could find my scanner, I'd go completely digital and get rid of the paper altogether!

In an effort to order my circular needles last year, I received a beautiful silk holder as a present. I was ecstatic, until I tried to do just that. Each pocket is labelled with the US size, so I had to go through all my other needles writing the US sizing on the packet to slot them into the right places. By the time I'd finished there was so much packaging in the holder that I couldn't close the thing! So much for organization!

Anyway, I managed to knit this swatch out of Cascade Sierra Quatro with the only US7 that I had. I hit gauge perfectly, so I have invested in some new needles which are the correct length to complete our sample at the workshop. I'm really looking forward to some down time with friends this Saturday and afterwards I shall delight in slipping those needles into the correct pocket of my holder. At least one set will be organized.

Oh, here's yesterday's pictures of the Space Bag full of yarn and the kid's rescued handknits.

A Solution To The Moth Problem?

My magazine arrived safe and sound on Friday, just in time for what I had anticipated would be a more relaxing weekend than I've had for many months. The kids had nothing on the calendar for the first time in 'forever' and I was feeling pretty wiped any way.

Then Saturday arrived and with it some sunshine - not a lot, but enough for the daffodils to open and start bobbing their golden heads in the breeze and for me to develop a modicum of Spring Cleaning fever.

I decided that the answer to a peaceful soul is a peaceful home and as the daily lives of five busy people make a peaceful home almost impossible, I'd have to do the next best thing: declutter! After a hearty breakfast I set to and began sorting out my room and making space for P.A. to come home again. Laundry was folded, clouds of dust were dispersed and nightstands polished and reorganised. Then I looked under the bed. Good grief, what a mess. The dust bunnies had not only visited, they'd moved in and built a warren!

I got the vaccum cleaner and dragged everything out like a madwoman, determined to create order out of chaos. It was then that I remembered the Space Bags. I'd come across them at Costco during the week and picked them up because I'd been looking to purchase some for the past month. You see, I've had a MOTH problem.

A moth must have taken up residence (along with the dust bunnies) and has chewed right through my sons' handknit wool blanket, a gift from a friend when he was born. I found it a few weeks ago when we had that very cold spell and he needed a little extra on his bed at night. I was mortified. I thought of all the woollen garments I have laying around the house totally unprotected! I was particularly horrified by the thought of all the baby sweaters I knitted my children when they were small being munched through by a squadron of flying insects. It was time to take action. Space Bags would be the answer to my storage issues, but they might also be the solution to the moth one too.

So on Saturday I vaccum packed! There were duvets and blankets, summer clothes and beach towels, in fact I loved watching the hoover suck all the air out of those things so much that if you stood still in my house that day, you were liable to find yourself on the inside of one of them! It was then that I remembered the moth. "Hah, just try to get past this, buddy!" I thought as I sucked the life out of an extra large bag filled with Patons Classic Wool Merino and some Encore.

Brilliant!

I'm having some photo issues, so no pictures today I'm afraid. Picasa is playing up and driving me mad!

Neckwarmer

On Friday night P.A. and I grabbed a moment to pop out for a drink at our local watering hole. We were due to attend the District Dance Championships to watch DD2 compete with her High School Hip Hop Dance Team on Saturday and then he had a 7pm flight to Copenhagen to round off the day. In amongst all that we had to pack clothes, prepare gifts for family members in the UK (his final destination), on the off chance he might see some of them and...oh, yes,.......do our taxes! In light of all this, a farewell drink on Friday seemed like a necessity.

There was just one problem. I wanted to wear my new neckwarmer and........... I hadn't quite finished it yet. There I was knitting a few rows in between loads of laundry; lipstick on, hair done and outfit ready. The only item remaining was the neckwarmer.

I'd been planning it for some time. I had one skein of red Frog Tree Merino in my stash and had picked up a skein of SWTC Calypso ribbon yarn from the bargain bucket at my LYS a few months back. The two could probably be knit up together, I thought, and vowed to experiment. The project began last week. I used US11 needles and started with a drop stitch pattern. I knitted half the yarn before I decided that the fabric it was creating was really not what I had imagined. It was turning out way too floaty and the two types of yarn were just not complimenting each other in any way at all.

I frogged and started again. I cast on 25sts and did a knit 4 rows, purl 4 rows, design. Although the resulting fabric was much denser, it still wasn't quite what I'd envisioned (this 'minds eye' business can be quite infuriating at times!)

I ripped it all out again and cast on 25sts.

In desperation I resigned myself to the embarrassment of basic garter stitch. OK, so I wasn't going to produce some fantastic arty piece with loops, twirls and endlessly complicated yarn overs. I'd just have to suck it up and face the knitting group on Thurday looking like an 8yr old, with my vibrant mauve jumbo needles and garter stitch square.

I got well through my neckwarmer at knitting that day, taking the ergonomic tack to explain my needle size (after all I had been knitting a lot of socks recently.) My Central Park Hoodie proved a great distraction too and there was a whole lot of spinning going on, so I got back home relatively unscathed in the 'street cred' department.

I cast off the neckwarmer moments before venturing out on Friday night. As I secured it with a marcazite pin, I realised that I'd created a lushious looking warm, springy fabric with all the passion of a Chanel tweed. I felt very Jackie O as I teamed my red and black masterpiece with a black rollneck sweater, black suede jacket, black trousers and knee high boots. The electrifying red of the neckwarmer was the piece de resistance and centre piece of the outfit. It looked amazing.

I will certainly never knock garter stitch again. In fact, I'm sorely tempted by the thought of a Chanel jacket right now.

Hmmmmm, I wonder?!!

Colour Coordinated

On Wednesday I went to have lunch with P.A. again. Yes, I know, it's pretty unbelievable but after 17yrs with kids, nearly 20yrs of marriage and 7mths of almost continuous travelling on his part, we've learned to have our 'date' time whenever we can!

His office is 'conveniently' located near a fabric and yarn shop, so a quick trip to the neighbouring town for lunch just had to include a visit to the store. I made a beeline for the yarn section and spent a very pleasant half an hour caressing Cascade and hankering after Handspun (sigh). I picked up a packet of point protectors, as I never seem to have enough, and ogled the Addis before moving on to the sock yarns.

What a yummy mistake! It was akin to being on a low fat diet and finding yourself standing in front of a shelf of gooey chocolate eclairs and custard slices. The Noro was naughty, the Trekking (XXL) tasty and the Hand Dyed could just about heave you over the edge.

I was good, I walked away........................but only for about five minutes. When I realised my time was almost up, I swung back, lunged for the object of my lust and promised myself, I'd work off the excess skein with a few more push-ups!

At the check-out, the assistant met me with the standard American greeting, "Did you find everything you were looking for?"

"Yes," I replied jovially, "and something I wasn't."

She seemed surprised, obviously not a yarnaholic. (Bet I could tempt her with a colourful piece of 'Liberty' print though, or a metre of 'Laura Ashley!')

Once I was safely back in the car and my breathing had slowed to an acceptable rate, I eyed my purchase. It took me all of two seconds to realise that the skein of sock yarn I'd chosen was the exact same colours as the outfit I was wearing! Now, how does that happen?!!!